While the economic factors converging to make its sales model less appealing are largely out of Dell's control, the same cannot be said for its customer service. Though Dell was once held up as an example of outstanding customer service, those memories flamed out faster than laptops with defective batteries.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo recently slapped Dell with a lawsuit, accusing it of illegal bait-and-switch tactics. Among Cuomo's contentions: Dell advertised zero-interest and no-payment plans for its PCs, but then mostly didn't honor the offers; Dell failed to meet terms of pricey service contracts; and it sold folks used parts after promising new ones.

If you push folks on the Internet, they don't hesitate to push back -- and in ways guaranteed to earn maximum public exposure. Web 2.0 empowers customers who feel mistreated to take their dissatisfaction far beyond their immediate circle of family and friends. While not all companies will stumble as badly as Dell in learning this lesson, there will doubtless be plenty of missteps.

Hi AnnJust wanted to stop by and thank you for the perspective. Think if you look carefully we are also making positive steps with new products, recent earnings, Ideastorm and direct2dell are significantly positive developments. Linux, the environment and today we announced more steps ahead on bloatware. Dell 2.0 is coming together...and lots more to come in the future. Reply

Jun 28, 2007 2:24 AMJohn Matthew
says:

Wow! What power the blogosphere has exhibited. I didn't know that bloggers can stand up to corporations, in encounters such as this. John Reply